The younger Le Pen raised eyebrows last week when she accepted an invitation from Robert Ménard, a far-right mayor in southern France, to attend a gathering of non-aligned right-wingers in his town of Béziers. Titled "Oz ta droite" ("Dare to be on the Right"), the gathering brought together a crowd made up largely of Christian conservatives who consider the National Front far too liberal on social issues, and insufficiently liberal on the economic front.

This was the sort of crowd that embraces Marion, a staunch social conservative, as one of their own while rejecting her "Parisian" aunt.

But from the start, the young political star looked uncomfortable.

At an opening ceremony on Friday, Marion slipped in to the venue with a small entourage and took a seat at the back of the auditorium. Ménard then kicked off the event by specifying that professional politicians would not be allowed to monopolize speaking time, and by referring to an unnamed party as a member of the "extreme right."

That was strike one. From the context it was clear he was referring to the National Front, whose leader Marine Le Pen has vowed to sue any journalist or politician who refers to her party as being of the extreme right. She typically rejects any definition as either right- or left-wing, yet another reason why the Béziers crowd, proudly right-wing, disliked her.

Strike two came the following morning, Ménard issued an ultimatum to the National Front officials present. Unless the party adopted a list of proposals from the gathering, he said, Ménard would withdraw his support. (Ménard votes for the National Front but disagrees with its stance on the euro and several other issues.)

Marion did not wait for strike three. Within minutes of being informed of Ménard's words she took off from the gathering, trailing a delegation of some 20 neatly dressed FN officials.

"We have the right to disagree with these proposals, they should not be trying to impose their views on us," Arnaud Stéphan, Marion's chief aude, told journalists after her departure. "This was meant to be a debate."

The quick exit hinted that Marion, who burst onto the national stage four years ago when she was elected to parliament, becoming its youngest member at age 22, is undecided on how far she can go in defying the party line — and her aunt.

Hinting that she disagrees with the party's policy on birth control is one thing. It's another to be seen mingling with a crowd that finds the National Front's proposal to slash immigration as too weak, and that cheered when a panelist proposed rounding up all immigrants to send them back to their country of origin.

By storming out from Béziers, she made a break with Ménard that drew a line under reports that she was nearing a split with her aunt.

But walking away from Ménard's ideas, and his base of socially conservative supporters in the south, may prove more difficult.